CHAPEL HILL — It didn’t take Duke long to find its rhythm Saturday night.

The Blue Devils jumped out to a 14-point lead before North Carolina even scored a point, then cruised their way to a 69-53 victory at the Smith Center.

The North Carolina offense, on the other hand, struggled to find its way.

The Tar Heels, seeing their six-game winning streak come to an end, shot a dismal 27 percent from the field in the first half, and a measly 34 percent for the game.

“It was an exceptionally tough day for us,” coach Roy Williams said. “(Duke) played well, and got off to a great start.

“They made all their shots early, and we didn’t. In the first half, it’s hard when they shoot neatly 70 percent, and we shot 27 percent.”

Duke (27-4 overall, 14-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) shot 55 percent for the game, including 69 percent in the first half. The Blue Devils hit five 3-pointers on the night, the Tar Heels just one.

Duke shot 83 percent from the free-throw line, besting North Carolina’s 77 percent. The Tar Heels never led in the game.

“Duke’s offense was stronger than our defense was,” Williams said. “And, their defense was stronger our offense was. They were by the better team (this game). Seth Curry toyed with us in the first half, got nearly any shot he wanted.”

North Carolina (22-9, 12-6), which earned a No. 3 seed for this week’s ACC Tournament in Greensboro, lost for the second time at home this season. The only other home loss was a 68-59 Miami victory in early January.

Since then, North Carolina had gone 12-3, using a smaller starting lineup in its previous seven games. That smaller lineup didn’t perform against Duke.

On Saturday, James Michael McAdoo led the Tar Heels with 15 points.

“If you go back over the course of the season, and we haven’t shot the ball well, we had some real ugly games early,” Williams said.

“The change in the lineup doesn’t make us the strongest rebounding team, or the strongest defensive team, but it did make us stronger offensive team. We got by in one or two games down the stretch because we competed, were pretty tough, and made a bunch of shots. But, Duke was a step ahead of us.”

North Carolina had beaten its past six opponents by an average of slightly more than 10 points.

“It’s always frustrating to see the opposing team make shots and us missing,” said North Carolina’s P.J. Hairston, who scored 14 points. “But we continue to fight and we still try to fight the entire game, even though this is probably by far one of the worst shooting games we’ve had this year.”

Senior Dexter Strickland, playing in his last home game, scored only four points. The loss marked the first time in Williams’ coaching career that his team had lost on Senior Night.

“He apologized,” Strickland said. “We could have done better, but you can’t blame it on him. You can blame it on all of us a team. We just didn’t compete as much as we should. We made little mistakes on defense and offense, and that cost us the game.”

Reggie Bullock scored only eight points, barely half of his season average of 14.2.

“I feel like we’re going to come out more hungry,” Bullock said. “Whoever we match up against in the first game (Florida State or Clemson) that we play in the ACC Tournament, I feel like we just need to come out.

“The end of the season is coming, so this will add fuel to the fire for us to come out with more motivation and more of a sense of urgency and be able to get it done.”